Today I chaired an international expert panel on
multilingual children's speech in Cork, Ireland. This was the first meeting of
the panel, and subsequent meetings with a larger group of participants will be
held virtually. The aims of the panel are to:
- Define international best practice guidelines for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
- Identify practical pathways for improvement of international practices for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
- Share resources, current research, and exemplary practices regarding multilingual children’s speech.
- Plan collaborative projects to advance knowledge about multilingual children’s speech.
We had a very rich
discussion throughout the day, that was inspired by the following quote: How do we “close the
gap between the linguistic homogeneity of the profession and the linguistic
diversity of its clientele” ?(Caesar & Kohler, 2007, p. 198)
By the end of the day we
had outlined issues to enable us to prepare the draft of a position paper on
multilingual children's speech.
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| The international expert panel hard at work |
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| The panel was still smiling at the end of our stimulating day together |
